UBC students probe ‘the meaning of life’ and other questions

Event includes panelists from five organizations including an atheist

What: World Views: How do we answer life’s toughest questions?Who: Panelists from different spiritual perspectives including Christian, Sikh, First Nations, Muslim, and an atheistWhen: Tuesday, November 3, 6 p.m.Where: Admin Building Theatre, ADM 026, UBC’s Okanagan campus, Kelowna

UBC students are not only tackling academic questions this semester. They are tackling some tougher, deeper questions.

Called World Views, a group of students has organized an event that will include an open discussion from five different backgrounds and spiritual perspectives.

Andrew Kitchener, an engineering student who is helping to organize World Views, says the idea is to bring critical discussion to campus. Last month, UBC Okanagan students were asked to answer a survey, listing the three most important questions about life that they would like answered.

Those questions will be discussed by the panel of five speakers — all with very different world views — Tuesday, November 3. The panelists include representatives from different spiritual perspectives including Christian, Sikh, First Nations, Muslim, and atheism.

“We are not presenting religious views,” says Kitchener, a member of the Skeptics Club. “We want to see what philosophical questions our students have about reality, morals, suffering, or other world issues. And our eventual goal is to bring critical thought and open discussion to campus. “

World Views, free and open to the public, takes place in the UBC Theatre, located in the Administration Building, Tuesday, November 3 at 6 p.m. Kitchener says, depending on how the event is received, they plan to hold similar discussions in the future and include panelist from five different world views.

“We are not trying to actively exclude any views from this event,” he says. “And it is not meant to be an all-encompassing event, but merely a look at five different world views.”